Burn With Them
by MizzSY
Summary: As the white light surrounded him, the Master knew he was condemned, and would burn with the Time Lords. A look at his last moments.


Just a quick one shot I've created to keep me going after I finished my other story. (Time slave, if anyone's interested. HOORAY FOR PLUGGING.) Another multi chapter fic will follow this at some point.

Summary: As soon as The Master stepped forward to save the Doctor from Rassilon, he knew he'd be punished. He knew he'd burn on Gallifrey at the Doctor's hands.

* * *

The white light was blinding, as The Master continued to shoot the arcton energy at Rassilon. If he was honest, he'd barely realised the light had surrounded him, taking them all back to die on Gallifrey.

Taking him away form the Doctor again, just as he thought he could find forgiveness from him again.

How many more times would his old friend forgive him, when all he does is try and hurt him. It looked like he'd never find out...

Returning home was what he'd thought would be a joyous thing. To go back to his own kind, to visit the rolling red grass he and the Doctor used to play together in during their more innocent times.

Looking at it now simply made him want to retch.

The red grass had been burnt out, trodden and dead. The citadel itself showed the damage of the time war. The planet was scarred, and would live no longer. He'd been brought back to the time when Gallifrey was on the edge of death as the Doctor was forced to make the worst decision he'd ever had to.

Which meant the new, more vicious Time Lord race would feel no guilt in punishing the man who'd sent them back here.

The glove that rested on Rassilon hand was the primary method of delivering the masters sentence. The energy wouldn't effect him, his body was "diseased", his life force so erratic it was impossible to decide how it could be ended. Meaning it could be used till he was screaming out in pain.

Then they simply left him, his body beaten, life force fading and the drums deafening him in his mind. They'd decided leaving the signal in his head would be a suitable torture for the traitor.

So he waited, the rhythm pounding inside his skull, for his world to collapse around him. He waited in the darkness as he bled out, as his life energy flickered on and off, to reveal the skull underneath.

The vengeful Time Lords would not leave it at that, of course.

He was forced to re live all his worst pain, all the sins he'd inflicted on others.

_Living in the cold uncertainty of the end of the universe. Guilt and fear wracked in his pathetic human gut as he realised he was simply too stupid a man to save his race. They were all going to disappear, the entire reality. They would all die and he could do nothing._

_In the chilly lab, he used his numb fingers to twist more wires, pretending to himself he could still help them._

_When he'd changed, when the watch led him to accept his true form, it hurt like hell. His entire cellular structure was changing, how could it not? Humans weren't designed to deal with such agony. Like a great fire had ripped him apart and stitched him together again._

The Master convulsed on the ground as his body remembered, he could almost feel the harsh sting of it now, a hundred trillion years away.

His head hit the ground, and his unfocused eyes noticed a stream of red liquid pass him by.

_He'd hurt them. On the valiant, all the humans and the Doctor. He'd attempted to destroy all he had the left, the only man who could and would help him._

_Every morning he'd torture the Doctor's raggedly old body, with mental and physical blows. He'd bring in the Doctor's pet freak to watch, or to join in with the Doctor's pain._

_He'd laughed when the Doctor finally sobbed, begging the Master to stop. He didn't listen, simply continued._

_He always did._

The thought of it now made him feel sick to his gut. Look at me, Master of all, lying broken in some dungeon, feeling _guilty._ How pathetic am I?

_Being stuck, between life and death having left the chameleon arch in reality meant he was left in limbo. Stuck in some kind of half life with his body dying repeatedly. He could see both the blinding light of life and the inevitable darkness from whatever realm he was trapped in. It went on for an age, time completely indeterminate as he floated about, waiting to be dragged back_.

The planet rumbled beneath the Master, a warning that he would die here, alone. Or maybe he'd go back to the half life, who knew what was waiting for him?

_Having to live with his life energy flickering away, each one felt like a stab in every inch of him. It was dying in the most painful way, and he knew it. Maybe even the Doctor couldn't even save him now._

_Just to be sure he had no way out of this pathetic death, he'd hurt the Doctor, physically with his arcton blast and emotionally by destroying his favourite race. In a way, making the human race into him made him look desperate, like he'd become the Doctor's favourite race so as to make him the favourite_.

The connection broke, allowing the Master just enough strength to sit up.

So it would seem Gallifrey was finally dying, the ground beneath him cracked as if to prove the point.

Scrambling out of the cage, (his guards had run off apparently.) the Master made his escape, registering his injuries, (bad head wound, bleeding out. Several bruised ribs, fractured wrist, and various deep gashes).

He just wanted to see his home, with its 2 suns shining onto his body, before it disappeared forever.

The coldness of the planet hit him harder than the sight of it.

All around him, the ground was cracking, chasms going deep into the core below. It scarred the once beautiful landscape as fire crept over the sky, falling all over the world. The people of Gallifrey ran, screaming in fear that the end of time had finally come for them.

Retching at what he thought was his safe haven had become, the Master stumbled away, clutching his side which was bleeding heavily, staining his thick black hoodie red.

All this time, since his resurrection, he'd been striving to return to Gallifrey, to re create it. Now who would want two of it? This planet was diseased.

He carried on, his slow journey which had no point; simply to get _away_ from the horror he was seeing. Was that what he caused, to other planets, other people?

Before he could mentally answer himself, he was struck down, leaving him to fall to the floor.

"You did this." The Voice hissed, the Master turned to face it weakly, body flashing as he squinted upwards.

Rassilon towered above him, face contorted with rage.

"You condemned us all, just to save the Doctor." He hit out again, striking just on the sensitive head wound.

The Master reeled backwards, his vision blurred as he watched the fire in the sky start to fall onto the planet.

"Look what he's doing to us."

Another strike hit him as his eyes scanned the landscape, knowing this was the last thing he'd see, his home being destroyed.

There, a blip in the chaos was some piece of calm.

A blue box rested on the burning ground, its doors closing as a man disappeared inside.

"_Doctor!"_

The man turned briefly to see Rassilon standing over a beaten man, his face dropped, but he hid inside the TARDIS anyway.

The Master yelled out in pain as it materialised away, leaving him to his fate.

* * *

The Doctor walked happily round his new TARDIS, hand still fiddling with his new thick hair. Going through regeneration often left him restless for days.

Eventually, he stopped pacing and sat down on the floor (he'd forgotten to get something to sit on for the console room.)

The events that had led him to regenerate were still fresh in his mind, one in particular refused to go away.

The Masters face, when it was filled with sadness that he would die, by the Doctor's hands after being betrayed by the people he'd longed to find again. What had surprised the Doctor was that he didn't move, or try and stop him when the gun was trained on him. The Master he knew would've fought far more. This was more like Koschei, before the drums came.

He'd seen Koschei in the grin he'd flashed at the Doctor before the white diamond had been destroyed. He'd seen Koschei when he told the Doctor to get out of the way. He'd seen Koschei when he'd attacked the time lords with all the ferocity of the drumming they'd inflicted upon him.

As the white light had surrounded the remainders of his race, the Doctor had seen Koschei and the Master for the last time.

The image of his race disappearing back into the fire freeze framed in his mind; forcing him to go over and over the fact the Master would burn with them, by a younger version of himself hands. More guilt to add to the pile, committing genocide on your own race didn't lead to a care free existence.

It wasn't often he dwelled on the day Gallifrey fell; it didn't particularly help his psyche. But on days when he was feeling emotionally vulnerable, like after a regeneration or when a friend inevitably left, (and he'd had both today), he'd close his eyes and remember how he'd ended his world.

_Running, running, running._

_That's all he seemed to have done that day, run over the orange surface of Gallifrey. Each step reminding him soon everything he touched and more would be gone. Even the sky would disappear from existence, ditto the Dalek world. Would all this death mean anything if it ended the war?_

_He'd tried everything to get out of the horrible option of obliteration. For so many years he'd hidden in a time loop, just to try and have an idea that wouldn't include it. But he couldn't hide forever, the time had run out for the time lord, and he had to use the moment._

_Even after he'd found out about the time lord's plans to end time itself, he had hesitated. If it hadn't been for her, he might've just let them rather do such a God awful crime._

_Instead, she'd pleaded with him, reassuring him it was the only way. Even in recent events, she'd still persuaded him to send her and the other Time Lord's back._

_Finally coming to the fracturing citadel, the Doctor used the moment, cringing and sobbing as it spread out and caused mayhem. Screams of his people, some his friends, soon came._

_The Doctor turned and started running again, realising he'd never stop doing so._

_Not many on the dying planet would ever know he'd caused it, he was aware Rassilon and the council knew he'd acquired the moment as well as a means to escape the destruction._

_So when he heard his name called out as he reached his TARDIS, he turned to look._

_A Time Lord was cowering on the ground, bleeding as Rassilon stood above him vengefully. He was one of many he'd never met, (he was dressed rather strangely for a Time Lord, the Doctor noted, Hoodie's were 21__st__ century earth fashion weren't they? Though they did appear on DelCon5 in their middle ages.) But the way he stared with pleading eyes almost convinced him they had met._

_Just another soul to be lost on this rotting world._

_Turning away, the Doctor resumed his running._

Shock brought the Doctor back to reality, his mind trying to connect with what he'd just remembered.

_A black hoodie, with dyed blonde hair_. And the eyes, the eyes of someone he knew. The eyes he'd seen in the Master in the very last few minutes.

He'd seen the Master all those lifetimes ago, and he'd turned back and ran.

Standing up to attention, the Doctor ran round the TARDIS, a half made plan in his head.

_Go to Gallifrey, save him. _

But as soon as he'd slammed the co-ordinates in, the TARDIS locked him out, refusing him access.

Of course, the whole thing was time locked, no way in.

Kicking the console in frustration, the Doctor sank to the floor, his uselessness over whelming him.

The Master would burn with them on Gallifrey, watching as his friend turned away.

* * *

As the fire finally hit him, the Master smiled.

The Doctor would escape on his TARDIS, burning with them as he made himself turn away.

* * *

Ahhhhh yeah, originally I was going to have the Doctor save the Master, but that basically went away when I realised the whole thing was time locked.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.

MizzSy x


End file.
